Chapter 59: Fuse (4)

[Seia…would it be okay to ask for an explanation of this situation?]

“Hmm…yes, Sensei, you must be confused about this situation right now…yes…”

Embarrassingly, what Seia did as soon as she approached my solitary confinement cell was simply to release me.

I couldn’t get an answer as to what her intentions were, at least not from what I had experienced so far.

However, I was able to hear the answer from the child in front of me, who was small but carrying a lot of burdens on her shoulders.

“First of all…I’m sorry. Sensei”

[…?]

“As you may have expected, we suspected the relationship between Sensei and Sora.”

Well…I expected this.

It wasn’t difficult to guess that based on what I heard from those two at the scene and the information, so I even chatted with Atsuko and Yuzuki about it.

However, I don’t know why Seia realized that this was a misunderstanding and came to me.

[Raise your head, Seia.]

“…Yes…”

[It’s okay…phew…I understand roughly…phew…there’s nothing I can do…]

As I finished speaking, Seia’s head slowly rises again.

There’s a height difference, so I still had to look down at Seia, but unlike before, she raises her head so that we can properly make eye contact and continue the conversation.

Yeah, I can’t say that I don’t understand some parts of this, and I don’t want to catch the students’ weaknesses, so let’s forgive them.

Of course, I’ll lecture them, though…

“You look like you’re wondering how I knew and understood that…before I continue my explanation…would it be okay to dismiss those two?”

[…Hmm…yeah…Atsuko? Yuzuki? I’m sorry, could you step back for a moment?]

“Yeah… Sensei, there’s nothing to be sorry about…”

“Yes, I’ll step back first.”

Perhaps she grasped this through my expression, Seia, who specifically mentioned what I was curious about, asked me to dismiss Atsuko and Yuzuki, who were attached to my back, for a moment.

Yuzuki isn’t in a position to refuse this in the first place…and Atsuko also has the same burden of refusing, but she seems to have realized something when she saw Seia, or she was convinced that it would be okay,

so both of them obediently stepped back.

“May I continue my explanation?”

[Okay, go ahead and tell me.]

“…As I told you before, I can see the future. The future I saw this time told me that it was just a misunderstanding.”

As soon as the two of them stepped back, Seia continued to speak as if she had nothing to worry about, and the explanation that came out of Seia’s mouth was something that I couldn’t possibly refute.

It’s not particularly logical or anything…it’s just that there’s no one else who can confirm it except her, so if she says so, then it is…it’s in the realm of future vision, so there’s nothing I can do about it.

However, just as Seia read my expression, I could also read Seia’s expression, and Seia’s expression was whispering to me that she had more to say.

[…Yeah…it’s just a little sad that I found out after seeing something as grand as the future…haha…]

“I’m…sorry…”

However, she also seemed like she didn’t want to rush into the main topic right now…or she wanted to solve this problem right now, so she was continuing the current conversation.

[Well…yeah…then let’s go…and clear up this ridiculous misunderstanding about me…]

-Fidget fidget-

“That’s..that..that’s…ugh…”

“Wow…”

My thoughts stopped for a moment.

That’s because everything I was secretly preparing was discovered by the people involved, so from my point of view, I couldn’t help but be embarrassed…

It became a little difficult to even make eye contact.

I guess from the two of them’s point of view, they’re probably full of questions because I’m avoiding eye contact without knowing why…

Anyway, I don’t know if they saw that scene directly…or if a tip came in by chance….

That means someone saw the scene of me choosing that damn swimsuit…and it doesn’t stop there, there’s also a possibility that they found out about what I was preparing so hard.

Damn…my already hot face gets even hotter.

I’m sure if I look in the mirror now, I’ll see my face, which is only red.

Anyway…I want to do it when the atmosphere is a little more set and when the three of them are all together…

Unfortunately, the expressions of the two of them didn’t seem to allow that.

Thus, a time mixed with silence began to flow little by little, and in that time, I couldn’t get rid of my anxiety to the point where I couldn’t keep my hands still.

The one who broke that silence was Nagisa-senpai, who made me fall into silence.

“Can’t you…tell us…? To us too…?”

“Th…no…just…a little…th…after Seia-senpai comes…would it be okay…?”

“Heeh…what do you want to say…?

Huh?

Huh?”

“Onee-chan..?!

That’s scary?!”

What…?

Are they misunderstanding something…?

Onee-chan approaches me with a slightly scary expression and opens her mouth at a distance where I can feel the pressure.

No, wait a minute, as the word misunderstanding penetrates my head, I realize what kind of misunderstanding the things I did with the Sensei on the weekend in secret from everyone will be seen as.

This is bad…if I don’t tell them everything now, I’ll be properly misunderstood.

“Th…that…”

Even if I think about telling them everything…who can casually tell the person involved about something with that kind of intention?

I can muster up some courage when Seia-senpai comes, but at least not now.

-Creak, thud thud-

“…? Senpai…?”

“Nagi-chan…?”

While I was hesitating, Nagisa-senpai got up from her seat and started approaching me.

At that moment, Onee-chan, who was talking to me right in front of me with a slight sense of pressure, naturally looked back at Senpai and stepped back little by little.

The height difference between Senpai and me isn’t that big, but because I’m a little shorter, Senpai’s head was slightly lowered, and coupled with the exquisite angle of the light source in the office, the upper part of her face was in shadow.

I feel a different kind of pressure from the pressure I felt from Mika-onee-chan earlier from the Senpai in front of me.

-Grab-

“Really…can’t you answer me now…?”

Senpai grabs my shoulder and still with her head lowered…no, with her head lowered a little more than before, she speaks to me.

“Senpai…?”

It wasn’t a long time, but in the time engraved deep in my soul, I see a look on Senpai’s face that I’ve never seen before.

A look that looks like she’s about to cry, she hasn’t shown this kind of face since that day, the day my wings were torn.

But today, this expression is different from that day, as if she’s maintaining her sanity and trying to endure the tears that are about to burst out, even if she has to bite her lip.

I could see that she was gradually putting more and more force into biting her lip, so at that moment, the thought that hit my head first went far away with hesitation.

“…Ugh…I’ll…tell you everything…”

Yeah, well…in the end, I guess I’m destined to lose to these people.

I wouldn’t dislike that, so I should have given them what I was going to give them as a gift anyway, so I started to feel foolish for thinking about it for so long.

Foolish and so foolish that I almost hurt the people I cherish the most, so I should define myself as an infinitely foolish idiot.

I don’t remember what I said after that.

But what I definitely remember is…

Only after Nagisa-senpai calmed down could I take out the two small boxes in my arms and hand them over.

“…? Sora-chan? Is this what you were hiding?”

“…Surely…”

The pressure that was gradually flowing from the two of them subsided only then, and the two of them slowly began to unravel the wrapping paper of the box with their beautiful hands.

Little by little, they carefully dismantle the wrapping paper, and eventually the box reveals itself.

Maybe if it’s the two of them, they can guess the contents just by looking at the logo drawn on the box.

A brooch, a brooch that uses my wing feathers as decoration.

…I had heard about it from Onee-chan before, so it was a gift that came to mind on the spot.

It was a kind of custom and culture that existed in Trinity quite a long time ago, and it’s not something that acts as a particularly special meaning now, but to those who know its meaning…

“Wow-oh…yeah…is this what I saw back then…?

Haha, Nagi-chan?

You completely missed the mark…huh?”

-Thud thud-

“…Senpai…?”

“Sora-chan…”

It was a very special item.

“Ugh?!”

“Chuu…”

It was sudden.

The fishy smell of blood and the scent of Earl Grey tea fill my mouth.

A sudden kiss, it was sudden, so my back, which was surprised, is supported by one arm by the woman in front of me.

I am coveted.

It was sudden, so I wasn’t prepared, and because I wasn’t prepared, I was defenseless, and because I was defenseless, I was the one being coveted.

“Ugh…heeh…”

“Chuu haa..ugh”

Was it because it was sudden, or…was it because it was rough?

As each other’s breaths reached their limits, the two lips part for a moment.

“…?!”

How long has it been since I took a short breath?

After a really short gap, our mouths meet again.

Even though the afterglow hasn’t faded yet, my mind melts and I can’t get my act together with the kiss.

The slight smell of blood and tea that remains melts my brain as if I’m drinking strong alcohol.

The time that continues like that would have been between a few seconds and a few minutes…but to me, it was long and long.

“Wow-oh…”

“…Ahem..”

I’ve done it.

As soon as I saw the brooch with the gold-plated feathers attached using Trinity’s unique technology, I lost my reason.

As if something in my head melted after drinking something strong, as if I had become a beast, I coveted Sora.

Mika-san also can’t continue speaking properly next to me…so it seems that it’s true that I caused an accident.

Kiss…since a short bird kiss has become something that’s not so special between us, you might ask what kind of accident this is, but it can become an accident depending on where, how…and in front of whom it was done.

[Haha…it’s a good thing the misunderstanding is cleared up, so…let’s calm down a little?]

“…Sensei, I’m sorry, but I can’t stand this one either…”

Absurdly, I didn’t know that the Sensei and Seia-san would enter the office at that exact moment…

I was only looking at Sora…no, anyone would only look at her in that situation.

That’s why I didn’t see Seia-san and the Sensei entering the office, even though I was at an angle where I could see them properly, and that came to me like this.

You said you laid hands on a junior two years younger than you, and you hit Mika’s mouth with that roll cake, but now you’re continuing that act, when did you…it’s funny…”

“Ugh…”

I couldn’t say anything to Seia-san, who was telling me a story that I couldn’t possibly refute.

The reason is not only because Seia-san returned the words I said to Mika-san myself,

but also because Mika-san, who was standing behind the Sensei and was in the same state of being frozen with Sora, who was frozen behind me, was staring at me.

Without stopping there, Seia-san’s sarcasm came to me quite painfully.

During the time I was listening to the sarcasm, the pain from the small wound on my lip that I bit earlier was painful…but thankfully, this didn’t last long.

So, after some time had passed and the situation was somewhat sorted out…

“Hehe…our junior is capable, huh?”

“Yeah, I had a good view..”

“Senpai…Atsuko…stop it…”

[Haha…well…but…it’s a good thing the misunderstanding is cleared up…]

Even while receiving Seia-san’s glare, I couldn’t take my eyes off Sora.

I couldn’t help but fall into the thought of whether the previous accident was my own arbitrary decision.

However, this was quickly resolved.

“Well~ So I wasn’t going to say it on purpose, but…so how far did you go…”

[Yuzuki? Stop for a…huh…]

“Wow-oh…”

It might be a rude question, but judging from Sora’s reaction, which didn’t include any anger, it was possible to guess that the two of them were quite close.

But the important thing was that Sora’s reaction was unusual…

“…That’s…that…with Onee-chans…yes…that…ugh…”

“…You’re serious…”

“…The same person…as back then…?

Is it…?”

Her hesitant appearance, which was different from her usual appearance…and the way she naturally used different titles for us to the people around her, I couldn’t find words to express how lovely she was.

Around that time, Seia-san’s glare towards me was also gradually melting, and she was starting to look at Sora.

[Well, well!

Atsuko?

Yuzuki?

Stop it…I’m sorry, but I have something serious to talk about with the three members of the Tea Party…could you two take Sora, who is out of her mind, with you?]

“Wait…Sensei…?

A serious conversation…what do you mean…Senpai?”

“Yes~ Well, well Sora!

This way for a moment~”

“Yeah, Sensei, good luck.”

Sora starts to be dragged out of the office by the two people requested by the Sensei.

Sora could shake off the two of them with her strength, but the two of them were already in the ranks of precious people to her, so it was impossible for her.

So, only four people remained in this place: me, Seia-san, Mika-san, and the Sensei.

And probably what the Sensei will do after this is…

[Phew…fufufu…]

“…I’m sorry…”

“Ehehe…I’m sorry…Sensei…”

“I have nothing to say…I’m sorry.”

[Today…I’m going to give you a serious lecture…be prepared…]

Today…yes…was absurdly long.

Nevertheless, it was also a meaningful day for me, with pleasant moments deeply ingrained in my mind…so I came to remember today as a precious day.